Presentation short abstract

While extractivism produce environmental toxicity in natural resource enclaves, it provokes significant resistance. Focusing on 'Kpo Fire'- artisanal crude oil refining in the Niger Delta, this paper shows how pollution and environmental resistance can paradoxically become two sides of the same coin

Presentation long abstract

Toxic forms of resource extraction produce far-reaching infrastructural and environmental violence, which shape the everyday lives of marginalized communities in natural resource enclaves, particularly in the global South. While the root causes of ‘toxic extractivism’ have been traced to colonial histories of capitalist expansion, this paper examines how these historical legacies have endured in contemporary times, reproducing themselves in localized variants. With a focus on ‘Kpo Fire’ - artisanal crude oil refining in the Niger Delta, the paper argues that the historical legacies of Nigeria’s ‘petro-capitalism’ have fostered the emergence of informal oil economies as a form of environmental resistance albeit a localized variant of ‘toxic extractivism’. Drawing on ethnography from communities of oil extraction, the article unpacks ‘Kpo Fire’ as a case of localized ‘toxic extractivism’ shaped by a combination of historical legacies of pollution, socio-economic deprivation, and local agency in the region. By situating ‘Kpo Fire’ within the wider debates of ‘toxic extractivism’ and 'environmental resistance', it foregrounds how Niger Delta communities navigate, contest, and occasionally normalize environmental toxicity, challenging simplistic representations of these communities as merely victims or perpetrators.